Ausländer
by Darth-Vulturnus
Summary: Where do black and white become grey? Where's the thin line between love and hate? To someone who's been reincarnated, yet remembers their previous life...what is the difference between life and death? Does it even matter? Through events of not entirely my own volition, I find myself in a new body in a new world, Earthland. Why wouldn't I join Fairy Tail? SI-OC
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue: Powerslave**

If you were to ask me how long I've been here, I couldn't tell you. No method of timekeeping you see. I don't normally wear a watch, and my phone was totaled, presumably in whatever lead me here. Or maybe it's just something you can't bring with you. I don't know.

If you were to ask me how I got here, I couldn't tell you. I don't know, and honestly, is it even that important?

If you were to ask me where I am, I couldn't tell you. I hardly know myself. All I do know is that this void seems to have no end. Purgatory perhaps?

But if this was indeed Purgatory...then that...means I'm dead. Right? That or in a coma, but… .

"Hello!"

I jumped backwards, heart racing. "Wha-?!"

A few snickers sounded before the voice returned. "Sorry for scaring you. Not sorry for getting some entertainment."

I finally looked at it. Well, tried to. It's constantly shifting form was migraine-inducing, indescribable with human words, for it maintained any given shape for a second at most. My brain stopped trying to keep track after about thirty seconds.

"What...are you?"

"Eh, no one too important. I might not have any form of significance whatsoever in anyone's life." It took a moment to snicker again. "That...or I may actually be the most important being in the universe."

"That's...uh...great." Because that kind of description isn't really helpful in anyway whatsoever.

"For now it doesn't matter what I am. Or maybe it does matter. But either way there's a chance I may or may not have an offer for you."

"I...see. What kind of offer are we talking here? And would it kill you to just speak straight?" So maybe talking back to something that looked like it crawled off the pages of Lovecraft wasn't the best idea, but hey, it's not like I have much to lose at this point anyhow.

Luckily, it seemed more amused than angered.

"Yes. No. Maybe. But I _am_ supposed to relay you an offer. You see, or maybe you don't see, there's a world where people are choosing to not reincarnate because of the threat from a demon king. And I'm supposed to, or maybe I'm not supposed to, gather fallen souls and give them power and send them to fight. Wait a minute…"

The migraine became unbearable as the being got up in my face, examining me far more closely than I'm frankly comfortable with.

"Ohohoho. It's been a long, long time since I've had a _Prime_ soul. You'd be wasted there."

"A...prime soul?"

"Universe Prime, Universe-1, call it what you want. But for reasons I don't know, or maybe I do know, your souls are so much more resilient, a little more bang for the buck. Yes, there's far better spots to place a Prime than Belzerg's meat grinder. Tell me, what do you think of Earthland?"

Earthland...Earthland...that's...Fairy Tail. "It's not really a bad place. But why there? What do you get out of all this anyhow? Especially if it would be going against your orders?"

"No one is going to notice a single soul unaccounted for. Even though Prime souls are more valuable, there are still billions of you. And the celestial bureaucracy isn't perfect. As for why I'd do this, simply put, chaos. It's always such fun to see how you all screw up events, sometimes for your own blatant wants, and sometimes under some shallow justification of making things better. And you Prime's are the absolute worst offenders in general, with that slightly larger than life presence and arrogance borne from subconsciously knowing you're that little bit superior to everyone around you."

"...I can't figure out whether to revel in innate superiority or be offended."

We both paused as a scream came from a ways away, and we caught a short glimpse of what appeared to be a brown haired Japanese boy a couple years younger than me and a girl with turquoise hair be dragged through a portal.

For a long moment, we looked back and forth at it and each other, before mutually deciding we didn't see anything worth mentioning further.

"Why not both? You humans are so silly, always wanting to seeing things as mutually exclusive choices."

"I suppose so. So if, again that's an if, I agree to your proposal, how does this work?"

A long and archaic piece of parchment manifested into existence in front of me, a fountain pen floating next to it.

"Magic and items at your disposal to obliterate your enemies, along with a non-interference clause from higher powers for the duration of your next natural life. All of this can be yours, for the simple price of your service after life. I'm offering you exactly what you really want, functionally eternal life. Never dying, well...never _permanently_ dying sounds nice, doesn't it?"

"It does, I admit. Too good to be true. What's the catch?"

"No hidden catch, I'm being upfront. When I say forever more, I mean it. Upon your second death, you ascend to become one of the princes till the death of the universe, when the last sentient life is gone, and so to do we fade with it. In doing so, you shall never reach an afterlife, from either the life behind you or in front of you, as at that time we vanish like dust in the wind, the energy sustaining us used up. We could get into the technicalities of the universe, permanence and whether it continues on or not, but it's functionally permanent since nothing from this universe will survive that end anyway. But...that's exactly what you want, isn't it? You worry even now that an afterlife judgement will go against you, that what you enjoyed in life will see you condemned to an eternal torture. You hope for cessation of existence at the end, and I can offer you exactly that."

That's ...tempting. Resurrective immortality, which can be both the best and worst kind, followed by a cessation of existence at the end of the universe. Damn, hard to beat something like that. Yet, the contracts outlines exactly that. Not contrived wording, no fine print. Even a clause stating I owe him nothing if he doesn't come through with any part of his bargain. All in all, why would I _not_ take it? It's either this or be trapped in this purgatory forever, in all likelihood.

As I went to sign, I noticed something at the bottom. "What's this 'experimental procedure' bonus thing?"

"Well." He said, stretching out the word. "I found something...or someone, I'm not quite sure, and I want to try something. If you agree to be my guinea pig, I promise I'll make it worth your while...hopefully."

That's not ominous at all. "What _specifically_?"

"Well, I can already give you magic, though I should warn you that it's gonna hurt. I want to try grafting this thing onto your soul. Anyone else would explode. I'm fairly certain, however, that a Prime soul like yourself can contain the power." He looked away. "...Maybe."

"I don't like the sound of 'maybe.'"

"It'll make you far more powerful than you would be otherwise, assuming you make it. Besides, what do you really have to lose? If you die from it, then I've technically let down my end of the deal and you get fast-tracked out of here to the afterlife."

That's...that's a fair point honestly. Grabbing the pen, I signed the document with only mild hesitation.

The second I lifted the pen for the final time, the document rolled up on itself like an old scroll, flying into his waiting hand. "Good choice. And because I'm feeling generous, or maybe I'm not and I'm shortchanging you, I'll even give you some stuff I'm sure you'll find handy."

"Thank you? But why?"

He offered a wry grin. "As a little thank you bonus for being part of my experiment. Would you rather I not? If you're willing to do a run on a harder mode, just let me know."

"No, no, I'll gladly accept, I was just curious."

For a moment, he burst into cackles. "Don't think about it too hard or your feeble human mind won't be able to handle it, causing it to explode, and then where would you be? Besides, _technically_ speaking this _is_ a powerful magical gift, and thus even if you're not going to your original destination, I'm not _breaking_ my mandate, just...bending it...heavily, but again, details."

Okay then...

With some trepidation, I took his offered item, a small red pill. "So, with this, I get to see how far the rabbit hole goes, huh?"

He nodded. "Indeed. Now, this shouldn't hurt too badly." If he had a proper face, I'm sure it would be grinning in mirth, malice or both. "Probably."

It took me a second to down the pill, and not even a second later, the world burst into pain. I fell to my knees, not managing to catch his last comment as the vertigo of falling up twisted my stomach into knots while my blood boiled. My body twisted into a pretzel, bending into ways it wasn't supposed to as it was reformed.

* * *

**Chapter I: Coat of Arms**

It's been twenty-three years to the day since that moment in Purgatory. And despite everything else, that moment is burned in my mind, not a single detail forgotten or changed as life has blurred together over the years.

I rather suspect it to be entirely intentional.

It's one of the accepted tropes of isekai stories that the protagonist ends up in a major city relevant to the plot, or alternately, in an isolated spot where they go through a fairly routine process of destroying the surrounding terrain as they work out their new powers. Sometimes however, said protagonist is reborn, though if I remember right, that one was always more common to fanfiction.

My...patron...seems to enjoy some measure of conventional story tropes, as I am no exception to this convention. Rebirth is, well, it has its ups and downs. But still, getting to experience being part of Fairy Tail is worth it. A few minutes later as the commotion of a typical guild brawl died down, I slowly got out my lounge chair on the second floor that I had been trying to take a catnap in after a rather brutal past few weeks, and walked out to the balcony just in time to witness Master Makarov walk back upstairs and look at me.

"Come with me, Tomura, I've been meaning to ask for your mission report and now is as good a time as any."

"Of course master."

I followed him to a small section of the second floor and then up another flight of stairs to the guild masters office, which was the entirety of the third floor. Some of us S-class mages were in here more often than others, mostly those of us unlikely to destroy important things and/or those of us actually around decent amounts of the time. Mira was already there when we arrived, sitting at her own small desk off to the side, taking care of a lot of the basic administrative work.

"Master, Tomura!" She got up and rushed over to me and started prodding at me before hugging me. "You look like you got run over by a train Tomura. We're going to have a long talk later. But in the meantime, would you like me to leave so you can talk privately?"

"No need my dear, this is hardly secretive to you. Besides, it would hardly be fair for you to not be aware of the circumstances that left your elder brother in such a predicament so you can properly make sure he rests and recovers properly." Makarov said that last bit while giving me a disappointed glare.

"Of course master." Mira tilted her head forty-five degrees and clapped her hands together, her smile far too innocent. "After all, it would be _unfortunate for his health_ if he were to take another job before making sure he was fully recovered and spending time with his siblings, wouldn't it be, Tomura?"

I gave a long sigh. "Point made Mira. So, what's up master?"

"I'm glad you made it back alive Tomura, that job has claimed many a wizard older than you. How did it go?"

"Well, I did in fact finish the job, though I can see why it was a forty-year. It required not insignificant amounts of low cunning and general unpleasantness to be sure...but I finally managed to weed out all the cultists and every trace of their existence. That wouldn't have been so bad on it's own, even though it was a real pain in the ass because I had to spend most of my time tracking them down and avoiding well placed and executed ambushes and assassination attempts. Well, that and dealing with their living magic creations once I had them cornered. They weren't strong, but dear lord, I thought the swarm was never ending, so my options were limited."

Master and Mira both nodded, both somewhat shocked by my claim of general unpleasantness, as it meant I had actually used my primary magic, a rare occasion indeed. Take Over was both very powerful and very versatile, but it paid dearly for it on the third point of the triangle, magic consumption. Battles of attrition tend to go poorly for us, relatively to other magics, especially holder magics. Especially since Mira and I both utilized more powerful variants of it than our younger siblings. I in particular disliked my variant and its inherent _wrongness_, but it was powerful and I was brutally efficient with it when I did use it.

"What required it? Your weapons are better suited to mob clearing than your Take Over is."

I gave a long sigh, knowing full well what I was about to say would make neither of them happy or any less concerned for me. "I had to go head to head with an Aspect. I wasn't fast enough to prevent them from bringing it through fully. They actually managed to give me the run around long enough for their leader to cast the necessary spells and sacrifice an entire cities worth of people. Gods damned apocalypse cults."

Mira looked at me with false cheer. "I'm sorry dear brother of mine, are you by chance saying you went up against an Aspect alone, without letting anyone know or calling for backup?"

"Er, Arty was with me? I didn't really have a choice. Besides, we got out alive and well?"

"Just you and Artemis. Well, I suppose Ultear couldn't given the circumstances, but not Elfman, not Natsu, not Happy and not Gray. Against an _Aspect_." Mira said this while looking at me, her expression indicating she was caught between wanting to cry while being thankful I was alive and wanting to break my nose for recklessness, and for a single moment I was tempted to lie and tell her what she wanted to hear, that yes, I did in fact have back up. But it wouldn't take her long to figure out the truth, and that's just not worth it.

"Unfortunately not, we all decided to take separate missions this time."

Mira just smiled. "I see. I would like to remind you that Artemis is not sufficient backup against something like an Aspect. But what's done is done, I suppose. The poor dear is probably traumatised."

Makarov shook his head. "You two are alive, and that's about as much as can be hoped for in this situation. What was the end result?"

"I...uh...um ...kinda…maybe sorta stole it and added it to my Take Over?"

Makarov stared at me. "You what now?"

"Well." I began. "It was a war of attrition and we were losing. On top of that, we were trapped with no way out except through it and it was of the right type so I figured what the hell, right? Not like we had a whole lot of other options. Well, let me tell you, that's when things got _weird_. It came quietly, like it was returning home. Even now I can feel its contentment at being with me, even as its will continues to be subsumed. It's got me spooked, honestly. Take Over isn't supposed to be that easy, especially against something that powerful. It just doesn't work like that. It doesn't. Something is _wrong_. Either way, I have no intention of using it anytime soon. Bringing an Aspect back into the world should never be done lightly, even if it's only temporary, but having such a trump card can only a good thing...even if something really weird is afoot with this."

"You never cease surprising me, do you?" Makarov said ruefully. "I think even Gildarts would have struggled against an Aspect. Still, I don't want you to get arrogant over this. If I hear of you taking Elfman on a hunt for an Aspect, I'll have your head, and I mean it. Where is Artemis anyway?"

I shrugged. "Because Gildarts is a lifetime member of the 'use brute force to solve every problem, and if that doesn't work, apply more force' school of monster slaying, and that doesn't work against an Aspect. It's not humanly possible to beat it trading blows. You don't _beat_ an Aspect, you _survive_ an Aspect. Unless of course you're me of course for some reason, and I've already mentioned how unnerving this is for me. Still...that might be selling Gildarts short, the man is hardly a mental slouch, even with his absentmindedness when off mission. But seriously, ain't no way in hell I'm doing that nonsense again, especially when I don't understand _why_ what happened happened. Even then, even if I using my newly acquired Aspect form, I have no fucking intention of waking Leviathan. Not a chance, no thanks. I'd rather try to solo the entire Balam Alliance at once. As for Arty, I took the brunt of the damage, so she's fine and able to do real person things. I think Evergreen had agreed to take Wendy, Arty and Carla clothes shopping. But back to my report. We got lucky that it was of the same type as my take over. If it hadn't…" I drew my finger horizontally in front of my neck. "We would have been toast, so much toast, all the toast. We'd have been done for. It was no careful calculation, it was a desperate gamble." At Mira's quickly rising anger and frustration, I decided to move on from my point and about how close we came to death. "But _anyway_, after that we would have come home at a casual rate, probably getting home next month or so, and would have been far more recovered if not for an emergency communication from Erza."

Mira smiled again, a slight twist of Satan Soul allowing her to create a snarling demonic visage behind her. "So that's what Erza's communication was about. I should have known, but I never got around to checking it."

I looked at her deadpan. "...Whatever. Anyway, Erza had discovered that the dark guild Eisenwald had somehow managed to get their hands on Lullaby. She couldn't remember at the time, yes, the murder flute thingy Zeref made that the Council sealed away. Quite impressive for a bunch of two bit hacks calling themselves a dark guild, but I digress. She said that she was going to get Natsu and Gray to help her once she got back if her team members were still out, but she asked that I do what I could to make sure things didn't get too out of hand. Of course, I was hardly in such bad shape by that time that a guild like Eisenwald would be a threat, so naturally I called up the Council, and the rest is history."

"Swordstorm couldn't handle Eisenwald on their own?"

Master Makarov leaned forward. "The three of them are all on separate missions right now. So _that's_ why this batch of complaints was so short. I should have known you were behind it. You don't have to do this Tomura. Even with the full list of complaints, it's not like we'd get shut down."

I shrugged. "I know I don't have to, but it's my contribution to the overall guild as S-class. Well, that and the people I really care about the opinions of respect me for it. Gildarts does the biggest and toughest jobs, which is a big reputation booster for the guild even if most of the reward money goes to rebuilding afterwards. Erza brings in lots of revenue via lots of jobs. Mira helps you with administrative work and handles a lot of our public relations. Elfman is Fiore's premier monster expert, and in addition to his job revenue, the research books he and Lisanna co-author on the fauna of Earthland have really helped with the percentage of profit they donate to the guild. Laxus… ." All three of sighed. Laxus was a bag of worms none of us were really sure what to do about. "Ultear uses her magic to fix the guild hall when she's here, and also handles a lot of our public relations with the Magic Council when she's not on missions with me. Mystogan is our spymaster for all intents and purposes if not officially. And I help by doing, ahem, 'errands' for the Council under the table in exchange for them brushing a corresponding amount of incidents under the rug depending on what I do for them. Putting the guild before yourself. That's part of what it really means to be an S-class mage."

"Don't throw my own words back at me you impertinent brat. Now continue the story." But even as he said that, I could see a glimmer of resigned approval in his eyes.

"Alright. Well, I called up the Council, got official permission to deal with Eisenwald and then took them out. Most of them will be going to jail for a long time, if not life. Others like Erigor the Reaper, well, the Council and I agreed it was better if they simply disappeared, permanently."

Makarov frowned. "You know I hate when you do that. And don't give me your usual spiel about how it's on the record as them simply having disappeared. I still vividly remember the Choral Creek Incident."

"Are they still calling it Red Run master?" Mira asked. Makarov only nodded.

Choral Creek, or as it was now called because of my actions, Red Run. This was, oh, about two or three years ago and I was just starting to get a reputation as a breaker of dark guilds. So naturally one of them, a guild called Black Lily who had built their headquarters at the edge of Choral Creek's feeder lake, had the brilliant idea to take a hostage to deter me from attacking them. Now mind you, unlike Eisenwald, Black Lily was no push over and my control of my take-overs weren't quite as tight as they are today.

Their choice in hostage was their first mistake, since they had kidnapped Lisanna, which, aside from making me really really mad, also meant Natsu was my backup. And when they very nearly killed her, Natsu and I slaughtered the entire guild to the man, even tracking down any members out on missions or waiting till they got back to ambush them and built a throne out of the skulls of all the guild members, followed by a several month long purge of any former members or anyone affiliated with the guild. I still have that throne actually, but I haven't had to use it for proper intimidation in years now.

Not my proudest moment. But I don't regret it. Not since then has any dark guild attempted to hurt me through my guild members. The only thing I truly regret about it is how close I came to being kicked out of Fairy Tail along with what it did to Natsu and Lisanna.

"I know you don't agree with it master, but we can all agree that the world is a safer place because of it. But after that, I gathered them up, turned them over to the Rune Knights, made sure they actually made it to prison, not making that mistake again, and then headed back to Magnolia. And here we are. All my injuries were from my job, and those have mostly healed, except for a few that reopened during my obliteration of Eisenwald. I'm not so much physically hurt as I am really, really fucking tired from back to back battles. Mentally, physically, hell, I'd say even spiritually as well, given how much I used my take over."

"What of Lullaby?"

"Officially? Back with the Council." I leaned back in the chair, bringing the aforementioned flute out of my Requip pocket. "Unofficially? We decided that if chumps like Eisenwald could take it, then it wasn't safe to return to its previous spot. After all, while they had their own plans for it, they _were_ a subsidiary of Oracion Seis, and while I'm confident I could take on a few of the members of Oracion Seis without terrible trouble, I'm reasonably certain soloing all of them plus their guild master is beyond me, especially tired and injured, without extreme collateral and even then… . I have enough trouble with everyone else's messes, I don't need to level a city or forest myself on top of that if it can be avoided. So I asked if I could borrow it for a little while to make sure it wouldn't be unsealed again. I actually know _exactly_ where we can keep it safe."

I turned to face my sister, the one and only user of a magic specialising in demons, before tossing the flute to her. "Hey Mira, want a new form for your Satan Soul? All yours. Not super strong, but it has a gimmick you may find a use for."

She caught it with practiced grace and a genuine smile, raising it to her mouth before a massive magic circle appeared in front of her, the pressure increased drastically while she was covered in a dark purple glow. Master Makarov and I weren't affected even as the chorus of damned souls rang in our ears, as we were both well used to Mira's magic, but even from up here we could hear the shouts of confusion and terror from downstairs since S-class mages weren't supposed to use magic in the guild hall if we could avoid it, and thus most wouldn't recognise Mira's magic. The magic of the flute battled in futile desperation as Mira slowly overpowered it. A dark viscous fluid like material slowly peeled off the flute into Mira's mouth, and within the span of what felt like a few seconds but was likely several minutes, it was over. The flute that had been such a terror was now nothing more than an inert piece of wood, the demon within absorbed by Mira, its will and mind utterly destroyed with its power forever enslaved to her. Lullaby was a gimmick demon, with its one saving grace being it's music curse. Aside from that, it was quite weak, not possessing even a mere tenth of the power of Mira's generic Satan Soul. It's really no wonder its mind was destroyed instantly in comparison to how I was still, for lack of a better term, 'digesting' my last prey. The difference in power between low tier trash like Lullaby and an Aspect was like comparing a candle to the sun.

She passed back the piece of wood to me, while I smiled and looked back at Master Makarov. "And that's that. We can send it back to the Council at our leisure. Now unless there's something else to discuss, I think Mira wants to make sure I don't escape from her grasp once again."

He laughed. "No no, that's all. And Tomura, neither Mira nor I will be signing you out for any more jobs until Lisanna has declared you back to full health."

I looked back at Master Makarov pleadingly as Mira helped me to my feet and grabbed her things so we could go home. "No no no, please master, not that. Do you understand what she's like? I won't be taking jobs for months if she's the determining factor. Can't we cut some kind of deal? You can't do this to me."

As I was dragged away by Mira, he looked at me and smiled. "I can and I will. This might finally teach you to not dangerously overwork yourself into an early grave, since none of my more subtle lessons seem to have made it through."

From there, we made it back all the way to the first floor and down to the bar.

"Hey Lisanna, your shift is over, come on, we're going home."

"Eh?" Lisanna turned around before vaulting over the bar. "Tomura? Is that really you?"

"Yeah, I'm back. Master has put me on forced rest, so I won't be going anywhere for awhile. When's Elfman getting back?"

Mira answered this one, as befitting. "He got home a couple days ago, actually. I think he's going out to dinner with Evergreen tonight. So we can expect him later."

The Strauss family home isn't terribly far from the guild hall, not even a five minute walk through the mild weather of mid June, though it was more like almost ten with the way I was shuffling. Mira unlocked the door as we all headed in. Lisanna, the best cook among us by a not-insignificant margin, went to prepare some food while Mira and I made our way down the hall into the section containing a number of rooms that was 'my section,' stopping in front of the bathroom.

She gave me a concerned look, the same one our shared mother had given us when we got in over our heads as kids before her time was cut far too short. "Will you be alright on your own? You're not going to slip and hit your head, right?"

"I doubt it. I'm not quite that far gone yet."

Mira gave me a somewhat doubtful look, well aware of my tendency to downplay things. "If you're sure. Don't lock the door, and if I hear any loud noises I'm checking on you."

"Whatever you say. I'm not a cripple sis."

Mira gave me another look, as if daring me to spite her, before she left me to my own devices. After a quick shower, it was back into the kitchen for some of Lisanna's excellent cooking.

"Hey Lisanna, I heard Natsu earlier, but I didn't see him with you."

"Hmm? Oh, he's probably rushing around on jobs again. He loves taking jobs even more than you, though he's far more destructive."

I gave a short laugh. "That's true. How are things between you two anyway?"

She became morose for a moment before it turned to anger. "Natsu and I aren't together anymore. We haven't been for months. You'd know this if you were ever actually around, Tomura!"

And with that, Lisanna hurriedly got up from the table and accidentally marched herself right into the mountain that was Elfman, Artemis asleep in his arms. "You alright Lisanna?"

"Elfman! I didn't realise you were going to be back so soon."

He laughed. "Well, not every occasion has to last a long time. It was a manly time anyway. So, what's bothering you?"

"My fault." I said. "Since I've been gone for a while, I wasn't in touch with the latest events between guild members, so I didn't realise Natsu and Lisanna had broken up. Though it seems like Lisanna was more upset about how long I was than the actual break up itself."

Elfman gave a nod. "You were gone unusually long. I know Gildarts takes multi-year missions and even Laxus is gone for long stretches at a time, but you were gone around seven months. It's been a long time since you've done that. A manly mission, for sure, but even I was starting to get concerned."

Well shit. "I'm sorry I worried everyone."

Mira sighed as we began to clear off the table and clean the dishes before we walked to the living room, with her pulling out a number of futons and blankets. "To another successful, highly dangerous mission completed by a member of the Strauss family with no casualties. Now, family huddle."

It didn't take long for everyone to go change into their sleepwear and return to the living room. As usual, Elfman and Lisanna were the first asleep. I wasn't a sensor, actually quite the opposite as one of the side effects of my natural magic was a dulling of the senses...and emotions if I overused it, and couldn't be bothered to ask Mira if she covertly used sleep magic on them. Both of us had done so in the past after all, especially right after our parents died and they were having trouble sleeping.

Mira leaned over and wrapped me in a hug, which I reciprocated a moment later. She turned away, and I swear I thought I could see a little bit of wetness under her eyes. "You've always done so much to make sure we've never wanted for anything after mom and dad passed. But that just made it so that we never wanted for anything besides time with you." She pulled up the blankets once more, while her magic power attempted to weave though mine. After a few moments, I consciously pulled mine back to let her do her thing, as the drowsiness of sleep magic immediately set it. "You've always been looking out for us Tomura, but it's okay, you can rest now. This time, let us look out for you."

* * *

Let me tell you, enforced rest is the worst. You can't do anything major and after so many years of jobs, it makes me feel like a real bum. How Macao and Wakaba spend all day for years doing this, I've no idea. It's only been a little over a week and I'm about ready to strangle Master Makarov and tickle Lisanna until she agrees to clear me.

"Tomura? You're back?"

I turned around from my seat at the guild bar before smiling lightly. "Hey Natsu, hey Happy, what's up?"

When Natsu sighed, I knew it was big. "Why don't you come take a seat and tell me about it?"

"I screwed up."

As Natsu sat down, Happy landed on the bar. "Aye! Natsu blew stuff up again. I think this was his biggest explosion yet! It was all like crash-bang-woosh-boom!"

Natsu turned a baleful glare on Happy. "I'm sorry, who was that knocked over the south tower because you weren't watching your tails closely enough?"

While Happy tried to look innocent, Lisanna walked over and gently picked up Happy before walking into the back storeroom. "Why you don't come visit with your momma and Artemis so Natsu and Tomura can talk in peace?"

"Thanks Lisanna." Natsu said, before turning back to me. "But Happy is right. I didn't mean to, you know? Things just got out of hand...again. Mind you, he wasn't paying proper attention either. He used to pay more attention when Lisanna was with us, but lately...maybe I should take some solo jobs while he hangs around the guild to build my bank back up."

I gave him a small pat on the back. Natsu more than anyone else was why I ran missions for the Council. But telling him that would just make him feel worse, and I had spent a not significant amount of time in getting him to tone it down while taking him on easier S-class jobs.

"What happened between you two anyway? When I left things were fine, and then I came back to find you two have separated."

He shrugged. "Honestly? We wanted different things. I like the adventure and she wants want more stability. I recall her saying something about how she disliked how her siblings, you especially, were always gone on missions more often than not, with her never knowing when or in what health you'd return, and didn't want to handle a boyfriend who was similar. And that was that. We're still friends, and honestly both a bit happier for it most of the time."

Huh. Interesting. But shit if it didn't make me feel bad. Maybe once I get cleared I should take some easier quests around town for a bit. Enough to relieve my boredom, but nothing long or life-threatening.

"So." I asked Natsu. "Where was it?"

"Lupinus Castle."

"Ouch. Blowing up the noble's stuff never ends well. On a scale-"

He cut me off, not needing me to remind him of my destruction scale. "Eight. It was really bad. And now I'm broke. Shit. Hey Tomura, two requests."

"Hmm?"

He grinned at me. "Can we go on a S-class monster hunt? I _really_ need the money. And two, can we have a match sometime?"

The trick to having Natsu not attack you preemptively? Simple reinforcement. Ignore him every time he attacks you without permission for years on end, while accommodating him as much as possible when he asks for a spar nicely. Honestly, it wasn't hard, but some-fucking-how none of the other S-class mages except Mira and Elfman followed me doing it. Whatever, their loss, I guess.

"Ah, Natsu, I actually can't do either of those things right now. You see, there were complications with my last job, and Master saw fit to put me on rest. I'm out of commission until Lisanna clears me. Unfortunately, Master knows all my tricks, and won't accept her clearing me if he thinks I'm attempting to sway her choices, so he says."

"Sucks to be you. Must have been a real bitch of job if it was that bad on you. Have you even left Magnolia since then?"

"No?" Where was he going with this?

"That explains your gloomy mood then. I can't remember the last time I saw you cooped up here for so long since you first joined the guild. Oh! I know. I'm heading to Hargeon. You want to join me?"

Hargeon? Why would Natsu be going to Hargeon unless…. . "Natsu, I literally just told you that Master's forbidden me from taking jobs right now."

He threw an arm over my shoulders and leaned over in a conspiratorial manner. "It's not a job. Technically. Krov heard that there was a salamander in Hargeon."

So it begins. "Igneel? Why would Igneel be in Hargeon?"

His eyes hardened and I saw the glint of E.N.D. "Igneel isn't. Well, probably, unless he secretly knows transformation magic. But you know how Sorcerer Weekly sometimes refers to me as Salamander when discussing my exploits, even though they haven't posted any pictures of me?"

At my nod, he continued. "I think that someone is taking advantage of that. I don't know who they are or what they're planning, but we can't let someone impersonate a member of Fairy Tail, even if it turns out to be harmless."

"Okay, fair enough. And you want me to tag along why?"

"Well, you look like you need a mini vacation, and this'll probably take a week, including, ugh, the train. Second, in case there is fighting, I wouldn't be worried about you getting in the way like if Wendy tagged along. No offense to her of course, but she's still a kid. And lastly...again, I'm broke, please help? I'll pay you back I promise, just don't let us go hungry."

This could be useful. I don't know how, but maybe. Would most certainly make things easier on me if Hargeon doesn't get wiped out. Though, if I recall correctly, much of that damage was Aquarius.

"Hey Natsu-" I began, but when I looked over he was already up and talking to Master.

"Happy and I heading out, Tomura and Artemis are coming with us. Don't worry, not a job, he told us. More of a mini vacation."

For fucks sake. I got up and walked over to the two of them. Master looked at me. "So you're going with this blockhead on a small search for Igneel, huh?"

I smiled, and for a moment I considered just leaving it at that. But...it would be wrong and ultimately counterproductive to betray Master Makarov's trust when I _knew_ I was heading into a combat encounter. Not one that posed any real threat, but it's the principle of the thing. "Well that along with a guild impostor, or so Natsu thinks."

Of course, I knew we were going after Bora the Prominence, who had become a human sex trafficker after being expelled from Titan Nose, but that was also before-knowledge, and since my abilities in no fashion included divination, I couldn't exactly share information that specific without putting myself under scrutiny. No matter.

Makarov glared at me, clearly somewhat peeved that I was circumventing the spirit of his orders, if not the letter, since this was more of me tagging along on Natsu's personal quest as opposed to a formal job. After a minute or so, he gave me a Cheshire Cat grin. "Alright, have fun you guys, but Tomura, explaining your absence to Mirajane and Lisanna is your responsibility."

Fuuuuuuuck. "Hey Natsu, on second thought-"

"Nope, you said you'd come, so you're coming. Anything you need to grab from home or are you good to go?"

I closed my eyes and did a quick check of my requip space. It was nothing huge like Erza's, but I wasn't carrying hundreds of armor sets, so I could carry all my supplies in it. "Nah, if we're only going to be gone for a week then I'm probably overstocked, but whatever. No such thing as being over prepared. Shall we go get Happy and Artemis from Lisanna and then we'll be off?"

"No need. I'm right here." Speak of the devil... Lisanna stood just a little behind us, two Exceeds, one blue and one orange, in her arms, fast asleep. "So what's this about you heading off again Tomura?"

"Nothing...major? We're just taking a quick vacation to Hargeon because Krov mentioned something about a salamander and Natsu wants to check it. It's nothing to worry about. Besides, I've been cooped up. I really need to get out of town for at least a short while or I'm going to lose it. Really, Lisanna, nothing to worry about."

She gives me a disbelieving look as she handed a sleeping Happy to Natsu and Artemis over to me. "Uh huh. Well, fine, though you best slink out before Mira hears about this." She walked over and pulls me as best she can into a hug. "Don't do anything stupid."

"I take offense to the fact that you feel I would. Besides, he needs it more than I do."

Lisanna looked at me like I was stupid. "Both of you are my guild mates and I care about you both. But, really? Tomura, you're my eldest brother while Natsu is my ex-boyfriend. _Obviously_ I'm going to care about you more."

I smiled at her, ruffling her hair a bit. "As it goes. Any destruction that takes place will be solely the result of those two."

"What the hell, Tomura! Don't throw me under the bus like that."

After a moment, we all broke into laughter. That's Fairy Tail for you.

* * *

**A/N: So we close out the beginning. And yes, I know. Starting a Fairy Tail story in late 2019, just about 2020 when the anime has already ended and that was years after manga end? Heresy. On the other hand, it's kinda whatever, you know? I like what I like. Fairy Tail is by no means the most sophisticated series. Honestly, it's kind of a dumb entertainment where the more you turn your brain off, the better it is. But you know what? That doesn't mean it's bad entertainment. It's a light, whimsical story compared to the other large, well known manga it was peers with, but that doesn't equate to not enjoyable. And anyone who says it's a poor man's One Piece clearly understands _neither_ story and their respective overarching thematic elements.**

**As for why I even had any inspiration to write a FT story, I'd like to reference some other works that directly inspired me to write my own FT story:**

**Carpe Diem by Fantaspasia**

**The Aegis of Fairy Tail by BANIX**

**Write The Future by thegreatroshen**

**Life's Illusion by BETAsatchel**

**Seriously, go read these stories. They're all good. Probably better than this will turn out to be, mostly because I have no beta to veto stupid story decisions. We die like real man. My usual partner in crime can't/won't beta this for me because...reasons. Don't worry about it. And speaking of him, for anyone here reading this hoping to get any clue on the status of Partners, yes it's still alive. We're working on it. Part of the delay is wanting to get the SB cross-post caught up.**

**But anyway, back to the main point. This story starts In Medias Res compared to a lot of SI works, though this chapter ends right before canon starts. Mostly because I got bored of reading about how weird it is in the womb, how disgusting being born is while totally aware of what's going on and then dealing with childhood. I could have written that, but it's boring as all hell, honestly. I also just included the main pairing in the character list because I have zero intention of being subtle with it and no patience for shenanigans like a "will they or won't they" gag. It's set in stone, actually plot relevant and this is not a harem story.**

**You also may be wondering at some very...odd deviations from canon. There are three types of changes to be seen in this story:**

**1\. Meta Shifts - This is a deviation due to a fundamental difference in the world. In other words, AU.**

**2\. SI Interference - Self explanatory really. These things are different from canon due to our intrepid SI actively changing things.**

**3\. For Want of a Nail - I don't consider canon events time-locked, as it were, without SI intervention so some events where multiple outcomes are realistically possible might have a different outcome from canon due to chance.**

**As for what changes fall in what category...some should be pretty obvious, some will be revealed as time goes on and some will be left open to your interpretation. As for rating, I'll put it as T for now, though anyone who's read Partners knows my love for explicit and often terminal violence, so I may have to up it to M.**

**And I'll stop here, because this is getting _far_ too long. So yeah, let me know what you guys think~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter II: For Whom the Bells Toll**

"Never. I'm never taking the train again."

"Mmhhmm, sure Natsu." I said while quite literally dragging him off the train by his scarf, getting a few odd looks from others. "That's what you say every time. You know what you have to do if you don't want to take the train anymore."

Once we were safely clear of the platform, I let him go, and within a few moments he was back on his feet. "Yeah, but it's not like you can teach yourself Teleportation Magic if it's not your natural magic. Mest and Ultear are the only ones in the guild who use it. Mest gives me the creeps, there's something weird about him. Ultear doesn't have the time to teach me, so she says, though I'm sure if it was stripper asking she'd find time."

"Mmmm." It was all I could offer. After all, telling Natsu about Mest's mission to spy on the Council...the Council would know by this afternoon if I told Natsu. Strong, energetic, happy go lucky, even inspirational? Those all describe Natsu. Good at keeping secrets? Not so much. As for Ultear...I'm not actually sure why she'd give Natsu such a vague reason. Oh well. I'll ask her later.

"So, where do we want to start our search?" Natsu asked.

"Couldn't say." I said while shrugging and leaning on my cane-sword. It's not like I'm obfuscating the issue either. If I remember correctly, Natsu didn't get off the train and had to catch another one back in the original, which means we're here several hours earlier than he would have been in canon. I legitimately don't know where Bora is right now. "Did Krov know anything about how our imposter was using your rep?"

"Nah, nothing like that. Just that he had heard about a wizard going by the alias of Salamander visiting Hargeon."

"I see. Hmm." Now we get into the big questions. Do we attempt to track down Bora now or do we stake out his yacht and wait till it's out to sea where he'll have nowhere to run? Tracking him down now, if we can, will save us a lot of trouble in making sure he won't have any hostages to potentially hide behind. On the other hand, missing him would be highly problematic, and trying to track down a boat, no matter what size, over the relatively short trip before they reached port in Bosco would be even worse.

I decided to put the question to the group. "We really have two choices. Try to track him down now or wait for him to show his face. Thoughts?"

"Would we even have an idea of where to start looking? Do we know what he looks like?" Artemis asked.

"Aye! If we have no clues to go on, then we'd just be wasting energy."

"They have a point. We wouldn't know where to start." Natsu rounded off. "Unless you know something we don't, Tomura."

Do I do this? It's a gamble for sure, but we should be capable. "I know many things that you do not, my young padawan. But I did happen to find a few things out. Our imposter is Bora the Prominence." A quick application of Transformation Magic turned me into a replica of the man so they'd know who to look for before I turned back just as quick.

Happy brought a small paw to his mouth. "Wasn't he expelled from Titan Nose because of bad behavior a few years ago?"

"Larceny too." Artemis added.

"Yes, well, I talked to Ultear while we were on the train." A lie by implication or omission, really. I _did_ talk to Ultear on the train, but it was just to catch up after seven months apart. But in this case it's a good cover for before-knowledge in this particular case. "Regardless of his expulsion from Titan Nose, he's only gone downhill. He's been spotted at the Bosco markets before, as a merchant."

"He became a slaver?" I could feel the heat roaring off of Natsu in billowing waves as the air started to gain glassy heat distortions, his teeth gnashing in anger.

I nodded. "Almost certainly. Which makes his plan a bit less idiotic. Not much, but not pointless. He pretends to be a well-known mage and uses it to lure gullible girls to a place they can be easily captured and transported to the Bosco slave markets. After all, sex slaves are the most lucrative. Also, Natsu, chill a little before you set the station on fire."

"Oh! Uh, sorry about that. But people who would abuse their magic like that… . When I get my hands on him, I'll show him a dragon. There won't even be ashes when I'm done with him."

I patted him on the shoulder. "I know how you feel, but we need to proceed carefully, or we'll spook him. But yes, we're going to put him, his henchmen and his little operation to the sword, so to speak. My guess would be that they use a boat, so I think we should check down there first. In disguise of course."

"Dogs again? Or something else?"

"Rats would be fairly common on a dock, though they're disliked for obvious reasons. Honestly, a group of four anything would be kinda suspicious. We're better off choosing different things. If Happy and Artemis just become normal cats, they should be fine. One stray dog won't attract much attention Natsu. I'll be a seagull."

"Sounds good."

We made our way through the streets, looking for an abandoned alley where we could covertly transform, and it didn't take long. Two humans and two Exceed entered and a moment later a brown cat and a white cat ran out towards the docks, followed by a bloodhound. I quickly kicked off the ground on my webbed feet, wind beating under my wings as I soared skyward. It was at that point I decided to do a flyover of the town, since it would take me far less time to get to the docks than it would for them, and it would give me an opportunity to see if either Bora or Lucy was out and about. Given, I didn't know if Lucy had arrived yet, but details. Never hurt to look, especially with a literal bird's eye view, even if seagulls didn't have the legendary vision of raptors.

Hmmm, now, let's see. Blonde hair, blonde hair. I caught a glint of some and swooped closer. Ah, not Lucy, shame. Let's see, houses, more houses, some shops perhaps, Bora's yacht on fire, some fishing trawlers, more houses and some roadside markets, wait a minute…

"Oh for love of-. Damn it Natsu!" I turned and made max speed towards the dock. It was a shame I didn't have any magic that made me faster, well, not without pulling out the _really_ big guns that would be total overkill, but is what it is. How? He shouldn't have been able to get there so quickly.

I couldn't even blame Natsu, not entirely. One aspect of magic that was known, if somewhat obscure outside of scholarly circles, was that our magic was not just a tool. It was not something you picked up when needed and then put down with no consequences. It affected how our very minds were wired. Well, our main magic at least. That was the important one, as it had the most dramatic effect. This reaction was understandable on Natsu's end, really. Dragons were chaotic alignment creatures in many ways. They valued freedom highly, at least their own, and would rail to the death against serving others if not of their own will. Equals? Sure. A student? No problem. A servant? Never. Combined with a general human moral compass? I would bet money that if Gajeel was here with us, even now before his heel-face turn, he would have put the guild rivalry aside to help us.

I skimmed over the beach, reverting back to human part way up to Bora's yacht, Newton's first law of motion carrying me the rest of the way as I reached into my requip space, dragging out a massive maul, white magic crackling around the head. Slavers don't get the privilege of my caster magics and rising to help me.

I landed on both feet, swinging around with my full momentum, as the maul's head impacted one of Bora's henchmen. A blunt force weapon may not be elegant, but the weapon design was my own. Sandwiched between the heads, and protected by an adamantium cover, was a special lacrima that took raw magic from the wielder and converted to a specific type, it's maximum power being determined by the person with the specific magic contributing to making it. It fed its power to a set of smaller lacrima that actually used the magic.

To use a comparison to Earth tech, it was a magitek ac/dc converter, raw magic acting as alternating current, with a specific magic that served as the direct current while the smaller lacrima were, in essence, flash capacitors. It had cost quite the pretty jewel to get everything, as these types of lacrima aren't terribly popular, but then again…

I'm no slouch physically, and when that was combined with an already heavy weapon that was empowered by Gildarts' Crush Magic, well...

The thug broke in half as the maul's head broke through his sternum like it was wet tissue paper and pulped his heart, the resulting pressure wave blowing enough away to make sure the maul didn't get stuck in him. I tilted my bucket hat down just in time for it to cover my face. Gonna be a pain to clean it later though. I hefted my weapon onto my shoulder for a moment before another swing turned some hapless mook into a slurry of blood and guts.

"Oi!" I called, making my way through the boat, looking for my overeager comrades.

"Die scum!" Some random henchman yelled as he ran at me with a sword in hand. I sighed, spinning around his pathetically telegraphed attack, my maul impacting with his back, vaporizing his spine in a spray of bone, blood, internal tissue and fat. They really are such pathetic creatures.

The next one I encountered had the luck to be dead already. Or, given the burns and the light blue flames still licking away at flesh, unluckily. No, definitely unlucky. My maul destroyed them instantly and efficiently, but Happy liked to play with his food. I almost pity the poor man. Almost.

It was walking up the stairs to the next deck I found a live one again, though he didn't last any longer than the rest of his brethren. There were a few corpses scattered around, an arrow type I immediately recognised sticking out of them from various strategic spots. I guess Artemis took what shots she could find. Maybe I should do something special for her, she's gotten a lot better.

The piles of ash already starting to scatter to the wind I recognised as Natsu's handiwork. Ugh. We're going to get _so much_ flak from master over this.

When I walked up to the top level, I found them. Well, Natsu and Bora at least. But I'm not concerned. Happy and Artemis are more than capable of looking after themselves. Natsu was covered in maroon flame, his left hand around Bora's throat.

"Why?" Natsu nearly growled out.

When Bora went to answer, I cut it. "Does it matter? Let's not drag this out. He's a dead man either way. In the end, slavers are all reprehensible scum. There is no acceptable excuse, so in the end it doesn't really matter."

"I-you have it all wrong!" Bora cried in a pathetic attempt to grovel and bargain for his worthless life. "I'm no slaver, I was looking for gravure models! You've slaughtered my men and wrecked my yacht over a misunderstanding! And you call _me_ the monster?"

Natsu...no, not right now I suppose. E.N.D. slammed Bora into one of the walls, his fingers tightening around the man's neck as his lengthened nails drew droplets of blood from the man's neck. "LIAR!"

Aw fuck. He's more pissed than I thought. Ho boy. Time to shut this down before he loses it completely. Don't need a repeat of Black Lily, though it's a bit late for that, I suppose.

I looked Bora dead in the eye. "Don't insult the intelligence of anyone here. Your plan wasn't actually that bad, I'll give you that. Use Charm Magic on unsuspecting women without magic and who probably have never even seen true magic before, thus defenseless. Use Sleep Magic to make sure they wouldn't make a fuss and then take them to Bosco to be sold. Simple and easy. If it was anything else, I might even applaud your planning skills." I gave him a malicious grin. "Shame about this operation of yours though. Under the executive order of King Toma E. Fiore, all members of all Fiore mage guilds are allowed to be judge, jury and executioner of all slavers who have the audacity of operating in the nation of Fiore. End of the line, Bora the Prominence. Make peace with your maker."

Flecks of white ash floated through the air as E.N.D flipped Bora over, slamming the man face first into the wooden deck. Holding the man in place under his foot, he drew his longsword, orange fire emanating from the drawn blade. In one clean move, E.N.D swung the blade down and across, simultaneously slicing and burning clean through the Bora's neck, as the slaver's body went lifeless forever more.

* * *

**Chapter III: Cherry Pie**

After Bora was dealt with, I had needed to act quickly to bring the Fire Dragon Slayer out of his rage, though I don't have any ideal solutions. Using Sleep Magic on a fellow mage in battle readiness was hard enough, never mind an enraged demonic Dragon Slayer with their enhanced magic resistance. Honestly though, Mira was like, way more competent with Sleep Magic, and well, _no one_ could compete with Mystogan when it came to skill with it. However, what I did know what the flow of Natsu's magic.

Everyone's magic had a pattern, a flow to it, like a river, and everyone's was unique. To pick someone's up required an immense amount of time around then while they were actively using magic, though theoretically two compatible people with similar patterns could do it in less time. Even someone like me who couldn't do sensor work for shit could pick it out eventually, the trick is to actually understand what it is. To be able to manage a synchronized flow between multiple people allowed your magic to work with each other seamlessly instead of fighting each other.

Scrubs who care little with understanding why things work and just care that they do call it a Unison Raid and leave it at that. It's so, so much more.

But the relevant effect here was that it allowed me to basically trick Natsu's innate magic resistance, so it didn't actively fight against me. I didn't know Natsu's quite as perfectly as my family and I all knew each other, but where finesse stumbled, experience of age and brute magical force picked up the slack.

With an asleep Natsu slung over my back, I made my way down the yacht. Now, next step, find out where Happy and Artemis have gotten off to. They must be around here somewhere. Their handiwork is too...them for Natsu to have managed it. Nor would he have any inclination to do so in the first place.

When I stepped onto the beach, I had to immediately catch a flying blue blur, lest the moron knock us all over. "Natsu!"

"Calm down Happy. We're fine."

"Oh man. That doesn't look good." The voice was unfamiliar, and yet, I had this strange feeling it shouldn't have been. "Are you guys alright?

I turned to face the voice, and near recoiled in shock. How could I not? I, as a matter of principle, tend not to believe in fate. Even disregarding principle, why would I when my afterlife patron straight up admitted that he was supposed to send me to Konosuba, but sent me to Fairy Tail for his own personal amusement? But for a moment, that belief was shaken by a blonde in blue and white.

How the hell did this happen? It's not like I hate her or anything, she's an interesting character in many ways, an even better audience surrogate and even the metaphorical Watson to Natsu's antics, but logically we should have had to track her down. Yet despite all the rules of logic and reason, there was Lucy Heartfilia, Artemis on her shoulder.

"Arty...you know what, we can talk later."

The Exceed stiffened slightly at the first part, before she flew back to me. I grabbed her, giving her a small hug. "So, who's your new friend."

"This is Lucy. She wants to join Fairy Tail."

I noticed Lucy flinch back as we, well me and a still sleeping Natsu on my back, got closer to her. It took me a second to realise that her first impression of Fairy Tail was now us dramatically walking off a burning yacht, covered in blood. It's like something out of a Rammstein video. Lovely. Well, hopefully this won't go too badly.

"Is this… ." She paused, and I could practically see the questions in her mind. "Normal for Fairy Tail?"

"Uh, no." I answered quickly. "This was a, um, a very special occasion. Fairy Tail is not like this, in general. To be honest with you, we totally weren't supposed to do this and we're gonna catch hell for it when we get back home."

This is gonna be such a pain. Natsu, wake up already! The Sleep Magic I used on you wasn't _that_ strong. She's _your_ metaphorical soulmate, not mine, save me from this awkwardness!

"So." I began. "You want to join Fairy Tail? You've got good taste."

"Is it hard to get in?"

"Nah." I turned slightly and shrugged. "Honestly, if you just want to come with us, I'm sure Master Makarov will have no problems accepting you. You must be at least a decent person if Artemis likes you enough to sit on your shoulder."

Yes, let's make sure not to spill any before-knowledge that I have no way of knowing. Coming off as a stalker would see shit hit the bed real quick.

"That easily? Huh."

"Yep. Just that easy. Now, we're in no real rush, and it's two days by train. He and I need to change, then if you'd like, we can meet up tonight for dinner and then catch the train tomorrow. Work for you?"

Lucy stepped back slightly, blushing slightly. "Are you asking me out to dinner? I mean, we've just met and all… ."

I gave her a flat look, holding up my left hand, more specifically, my ring finger. "Not like that. But if we're to be guildmates, it'd be nice to know more about you. My treat."

"Oh! Oh, oh, I see. Um, sure, that sounds great."

"You have a communication lacrima?"

"No."

"Don't worry about it. Meet us in the central square in ..." I checked my watch. "Three hours. That cool?"

"Yeah, sounds great, see you then."

There was a temporary parting of ways as Lucy went off to do...something? Probably whatever it is she actually did in canon between the afternoon when she first met Natsu and the night of Bora's party.

I hauled Natsu off with me to one of the decent inns, getting only a mildly odd looks from people, as I had used Transformation Magic to hide the blood. Simply transform into a clean version of yourself! It's kind of a pain, honestly. As I walked around the last corner, I walked face first into a floating lacrima.

"Oww. What the-" I was cut off as a feminine hand covered my mouth. A hand I was rather familiar with. Gently pulling the person said hand was attached to towards me with a momentary check to make sure I hadn't made a huge mistake, I captured her in a kiss, while I was also made aware as a rather significant weight wrapped around my left leg.

Eventually however, we both had to stop for air. "Hey Ultear, long time no see."

She gave a small, teasing smile. "You're gone seven months, and that's what you start with? Always the same Tomura."

"Flame-brain is out of it again, huh?"

I turned to look at said voice. "What's up Gray?"

"Same old, same old."

The weight on my leg finally decided to speak up, a small girl I was quite fond of, to greatly understate. "Uncle Gray, you lost your shirt again."

Gray immediately started looking around, even patting himself down, despite how pointless that was. "Oh come on! Not again."

"So." I asked. "What brings you here?"

"You." Answered Ultear, blunt as a rock. "I haven't seen my husband in seven months. Then I find out he took a vacation to Hargeon, only finding out when he called to catch up from the train." She rested her head on my collarbone. "Honestly, what a reprobate husband I have. Why did I marry him anyway?"

"Roguish good looks?" I joked.

"No, he's rather plain, especially considering one of his sisters is a professional model, and his younger brother is a mountain of muscle that makes most bodybuilders look pathetic."

"Excellent jokes?"

"If he went to comedy club, a professional would take the track and use it as an example of how to not be funny."

"Good food?"

"He can cook, but it's nothing special."

"Caring and loving?"

"Only when he feels like it."

"Sounds like kind of a loser."

We both paused for a moment before I gave her a quick kiss.

"Get a room you two."

Ultear turned to Gray and gave him a pat on the shoulder, complete with the half teasing, half condescending smirk only those of us with younger siblings can manage. "Fear not little brother, one day, you too may find someone willing to put with your stupid antics."

"Gross." The girl said.

We both just rolled our eyes, knowing she'd grow out of it, while I reached down and picked her up. "Sheesh, you're heavier than I remember, Yui."

White hair, brown eyes and the boundless joy that can only be experienced during the innocence of youth. "You've been gone a long time daddy, I grew a lot!"

Yeah, that's true. Too damn true. When your boss, siblings, wife and daughter are all in agreement on something, they're almost certainly right. I guess I _should_ just restrict myself to S and SS missions for a while. They can be completed in regular time frames with little issue given my abilities. Ten-year and even a century...they take too long. When I was in my teens, no big deal, but...it may be selfish, but I don't care, I don't want Yui to end up like Cana, where a father is more of an abstract concept than a real thing. But...fuckin' ay, that's the path I've been on, hasn't it? Damn it.

"This seemed like a good opportunity to meet up with you without the usual craziness of the guild, though with both Natsu and Gray here, it seems like much of the craziness followed us. Oh well. Though..." Ultear looked me up and down with a critical eye. "You seem to have had an adventure of your own."

Oh. Oh, right. Derp. She knows my magic well enough to be able to tell that I'm actively maintaining a transformation. Whatever, not like it's a secret, just don't want to incite panic by walking around town looking like a serial killer. I'll let her know shortly. Though...oh? Why is she using a transformation?

"We'll live. And yeah. I wasn't planning on heading out till tomorrow morning 'cause I was feeling lazy, so I was about to go rent a room for the night. That, and we have an appointment in a few hours."

"Oh? Do tell."

I gave a small snort. "Blame Artemis. She found someone who wants to join Fairy Tail. So we're conducting a preliminary interview. Not that said interviewee knows that, so keep that on the down low."

Gray gave me a look. "Master lets you do those? Since when?"

I shrugged. It was a fair question. "Technically he doesn't, but my recommendation is near as an interview with Mira. Between you, Natsu, Ultear and I, there's no way he'd not accept them."

"Suppose that makes sense. Hey wait, who said I was coming?"

I rubbed my ear in a very intentionally obnoxious manner. "Hmm? What was that I just heard? 'No Tomura, I totally wouldn't want to infringe on a large group meal you're paying for when I could spend my own money on dinner because I'm really rich and never have to pay fines for public indecency.'"

"Tsk."

"Don't worry Uncle Gray, if you get bored, you can play with me."

Gray sighed, resigned to his fate. "Thanks, Yui."

Mission successful. Gray and Natsu are just so easy. Play on their pride or financial situation and if that doesn't work, use Yui and the power of adorableness. Totally not underhanded in any way, shape or form.

"Anyway, with that settled, let's get some rooms." We walked into the inn, where I took point in talking to the receptionist. "We'd like to rent out, let's see...three rooms, two of them singles if available. Just for one night."

"Not a problem, it's not a terribly busy time of year." She named the price and I handed it over without complaint. Three room keys, one of which was given to Gray, the other single to Happy because Natsu was still out of it like a moron and the last one Ultear held onto, as Yui had decided she wanted to sit on my shoulders.

As we all headed to our respective rooms, I handed Natsu over to Happy, who promised to have Natsu ready after I had explained...tried to explain why this was important to Natsu's future. There were also no comments about how disappointed Lisanna would be in Happy if he failed at this task, nope, not at all. Artemis decided to join them to make sure things turned out alright.

Once Ultear, Yui and I were safe the inn room where we couldn't be seen, I let the transformation drop. Ultear didn't gasp or anything cliche like that. She had seen more than her share of blood and violence. Yui is still too young to truly understand.

"None of it's mine, just gonna say that outright."

Ultear snorted. "I should hope not. If there was something you fought that did that much damage to you here, Hargeon wouldn't be standing and the Council might have authorized Etherion, just to be sure. Your alias should be 'Cockroach." Still, with that much blood, might just be easier to give it up and burn them. Just minor blood stains are bad enough, but I distinctly remember that red shirt of yours being white on the train."

"True. You have a point. And honestly, it's not like we can't afford it. Between Mira, Elfman, Lisanna, you and me, along with the general lack of immense collateral damage some of the guild's other mages are known for, the Strauss family is probably the richest family in the guild. Master Makarov and Laxus are probably the only competitors."

She tilted her head, acknowledging the point. "Yes, that's why I married you know, the money. Now, go take a shower and get yourself cleaned up, you smell like blood and rotting guts, though it's hardly like that's new for you."

I laughed a little at her teasing. It's an old joke. The reality is that Mira hadn't even made it to S-class when we tied the knot...mostly because of Yui, so Ultear is just as responsible for our financial fortunes as any of my siblings, perhaps even more so. Funnily enough, Arc of Time is really good at making sure that when we mess up and destroy a town, we didn't actually destroy a town. Not that such incidents are common in the first place anymore.

"So, you know why I was using a transformation, what about yourself?"

Ultear gave me a look of 'who, me?' before I rolled my eyes and she acquiesced. "I was going to tell you, but it would distract you immensely, so I'll wait till we're back home."

I have some thoughts, but… . Eh, it's fine. I trust her. No hurry. "If you're sure."

The next few hours didn't really have any significant events. I cleaned the remaining blood off, put on clean clothes and then spent the remaining time catching up, and by catching up I mean letting Yui fill me in on all the news from the guild I hadn't been keeping up with. Well, as best a five-year old could. She, Romeo, hell, even Wendy just aren't old enough to realise some of the underlying tensions, especially between the S-class mages. Things aren't quite as peachy in the guild as they appear on the surface, and even the non S-class adults don't have all the info, though they definitely know _something_ is up.

Nobody is sure whether Gildarts will make it back from his century-quest, not even me. After all, nobody ever has before him. Unlike Bora's presence, I've been in close enough proximity to Gildarts and had a large enough impact on canon that such things are hardly guaranteed. And if he doesn't, well, that creates a bigger problem. For the first time, since before I was reborn, the Ace position for Fairy Tail will be open again. Laxus and I are the only real options, in terms of public visibility and power. And given I have responsibilities he does not, he's the practical option. It could be good for him, but at this point it would probably just go to his head.

Ultear or I are more likely to be made Guild Master than Laxus if something happens to Master Makarov, and Laxus knows it. Master Makarov is _old_. The man is nearing ninety and has heart issues. As I've discovered over the years, Ultear being with Fairy Tail instead of Grimoire Heart with me being in no way shape or form involved being exhibit a, the fact that he survived in canon means nothing here. Master Makarov isn't in the worst health all things considered, but it's a precarious situation.

Laxus and I are the same age, Ultear a year younger, but...there are benefits to not acting like an obnoxious asshole all the time as he does. But at the same time, there's somewhat of an uneasy truce between Laxus and I, and Ultear ignores him entirely. I know from my before-knowledge that Laxus can be, deep down, a decent human being. Hell, even a good guy. On his end, he knows if the two of us threw down for keeps and he actually won, Fairy Tail losing four powerful and prominent S-class mages would be disastrous for his plan of making Fairy Tail the strongest guild.

In the end, it could probably best be compared to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Both of us knew it wasn't ideal and wouldn't last, but for the time being, there was enough reason for us to keep the peace.

I'm really just waiting till Natsu and Gajeel knock some sense into him. Well...until both time and someone, doesn't have to be those two, pushes him to the point where he's desperate enough to use Fairy Law. It failing to do what he expected has more to do with his realisation and heel-face turn than just getting beaten around. If a good thrashing was all it took, the Strauss family would have nipped this problem in the bud ages ago. I would know, I tried.

And when you come right down to it, it really is just Laxus, Ultear and me. Gildarts, even if he's okay, and I _really_ hope he is, won't want to be tied down with such responsibility and will pass it off right away. Mystogan is too secretive to lead a guild. He also knows full well that I have an artifact in my possession that could change his features on a molecular and permanent basis. I've been tempted to ambush him and use it regardless of his feelings, as he's a headstrong idiot about the whole thing, going on about how he wouldn't let such a vile artifact steeped in evil near him and how the fact I was willing to wield it gave him reservations about my character. Still, I'd like to think I'm not a total bag of dicks, so I've refrained, even if he's being totally uncharacteristically over-dramatic about it when it gets mentioned.

Mira could be guild master, she has the skills, but Laxus would never listen to her. And admittedly...I'd have a lot of trouble with it as well. I've always been the eldest sibling, in this life and before. I've always been in charge of my younger siblings, and a combined near fifty years of habits would be nigh-impossible to break. Elfman has the same sibling issue combined with just not being leader material. He's my little brother and I love him, but in charge is not the best place for him.

Similar with Erza, with the added caveat that her disciplinarian tendencies that serve her well as what's functionally the guild's drill sergeant would be...less effective as guild master, as right now Master Makarov functionally gets to play good cop to Erza's bad cop.

It's kind of a pain in the ass situation.

"Daddy, are you listening to me?"

I look at her guiltily. "Sorry Yui, it's been a long day for your dad. I got most of it, but not everything."

"I said I can do magic now. Just like you, Auntie Mira, Uncle Elfman and Aunt Lisanna."

"You can?" That shouldn't be...well, even if we take into account that she's five and really shouldn't be able to use magic in any significant fashion, one of the research academies put out a paper just a few years ago postulating on correlation between the magical strength of parents and its relevance to the magical power of their children. My three siblings are anomalies, as our parents weren't mages at all. I don't count, I contracted with a god for my powers. Which makes me _technically_ an anomaly as well, but not in a useful way for establishing patterns. But not everyone is going to be an outlier and Ultear and I are both very powerful mages. "What is it?"

She struck a pose and scrunched her face in concentration. It was hilariously adorable. "Take Over." She declared with all the seriousness a young child could muster as a relatively small grey magic circle formed under her and I suddenly understood why she had mentioned her paternal family and not anybody else in the guild or even her own mother. "Elemental Soul: Smoke Mephit."

Elemental, huh? That's neat. If I had to guess just based on my own knowledge of elemental beings she could utilize in the future, it'd end up in the mid-tier range, not as powerful as Elfman's, Mira's or mine, but more powerful than Lisanna's and subsequently higher operating costs. Highly versatile though, perhaps the most out of them. There was a small flash of light, and where Yui was a moment ago was replaced by a small creature. Roughly the size and shape of an imp, it had a comically oversized nose that ended in a point, while smoke fluttered into the air with every wingbeat. It doesn't look particularly powerful, but then again, I didn't expect it to be or she wouldn't be able to handle it. Honestly, it's more surprising that she can manage a full-body takeover so easily.

I looked at Ultear, my lovely wife, who seemed utterly unconcerned that our daughter was demonstrating a prodigal level of proficiency in magic for her age. I held the bridge of my nose and sighed. "Who am I talking with about what's appropriate to teach Yui? Mira or Elfman?"

"Lisanna, actually."

Huh. Didn't think Lisanna would be the irresponsible one here, but she _is_ the youngest of my siblings. "That would explain how Yui got the full-body transformation down so early. Lisanna always did have the least trouble with that."

There was another burst of magic as Yui turned back to normal and spun in place. "Ta-da! What you think, daddy?"

I gave her a genuine smile. Even if I didn't approve of Lisanna drawing Yui's magic out this early, whether that was my sister's goal or not, that doesn't diminish Yui's achievement. I walked over to her, kneeled down, and gave her a hug. "Good job. That you can do that so easily is really impressive. Your auntie Mira and I had a lot more trouble with the full-body takeover and I had to literally beat it into Elfman."

I felt Ultear's hand on my shoulder. "Are you sure you should be telling her that? Anyhow, it's time to get going."

Already? But it's hardly been… . I give the time mage a somewhat suspicious look, but don't say anything. It's hardly the end of the world if she messed with our perception a little to hasten things along.

"Sounds good. Well, I don't have anything I don't already have on me. You two ready?"

"I am." Ultear replied while Yui nodded.

And with that established, we made our way out through the inn, meeting up with Gray, Natsu, Happy and Artemis as we made our way to the central square where a certain Miss Heartfilia was waiting for us.

Artemis was the first to notice and flew over to her. "Hey Lucy."

Lucy made her way over, eyeing our larger group.

"You smell nice."

Damnit. Taking a leaf from Erza, I reached out and chopped the back of Natsu's neck, dragging him back slightly, so that I could whisper into his ear. "Natsu, what have I told you about saying whatever comes to mind?"

He at least looked contrite. "Uh, not to? That some things should stay in my head. Oh...oh! Sorry."

"Not the end of the world." I released Natsu and turned back to Lucy. "Sorry about that. You know me of course, along with Happy and Artemis. The hothead who opens his mouth before thinking is Natsu, who you saw last time, though he was asleep at the time. We've been joined, rather unexpectedly, by more Fairy Tail members. The shirtless one is Gray, this woman on my arm is Gray's elder sister who also happens to be my lovely wife, Ultear, and this our daughter, Yui."

Lucy smiled, though I didn't know her well enough to tell whether it was genuine or not. "It's nice to meet you all. So, where are we headed?"

"Hey Tomura." Natsu said. "If you haven't decided, what about barbeque? There's a new place I wanted to try before we leave."

I shrugged. "If that works with everyone else. I was planning on taking it to vote anyway, so this works. Everyone good with barbeque?"

Getting seven affirmative nods, we set out, letting Natsu guide us down the few blocks. Getting a table and food for eight was slightly more difficult, but nothing insurmountable. Can't say I blame them, having a large group just show up on your doorstep can be problematic for a restaurant.

Once things got going, I was mostly content to take a backseat role, enjoy the food and keep Yui from getting too bored. As I had hoped, Natsu was mostly taking point in engaging Lucy, with Gray adding here or there. That was good, for a number of reasons. Playing matchmaker wasn't a preferred use of my time, but Lucy would apparently have the skill and constitution to be able to successfully rewrite Zeref's Book of E.N.D. in the future. I _might_ be able to do the job personally, but like any proper scheming bastard, I wasn't going to really on things like 'might,' 'maybe' or 'possibly' when I could avoid it. Not when the lives of my friends or family were at risk. I _knew_ Lucy would be capable of it, I just needed to make sure she actually had the motivation to risk so much in doing so.

Maybe more of my patron has rubbed off on me than I'd like to admit. That's mildly terrifying.

By the end of it several hours later, my spacing had straight up turned into me dozing off. It had been a pain in the ass day. We went our separate ways, so far as that went, for the night and then all reunited for an extra fun two day train ride from Hargeon back to Magnolia, featuring Natsu's stomach. Oh well. At least nothing important had been destroyed, so that would make my life easier at any rate. I won't have Org annoying me about how Hargeon has been half destroyed. Wait...Natsu was with me, and we managed to minimize collateral. Gray was with Ultear, so if they caused any collateral in the first place, Arc of Time renders it irrelevant. Oh thank the sweet lord above. The two biggest sources of headaches for me are neutralized.

Let's see, what was next?

We've recruited Lucy, so that's good. They're going to form their own separate team, because even if Natsu and Gray could handle S-class missions with us, Lucy most certainly cannot. Nor will they learn if I solve every problem for them. Wait...S-class mission...oh. I remember looking at that one. Galuna Island. And then...Phantom Lord and then Tower of Heaven? Or was it the other way around? Was Edolas before or after Fantasia? Fuck. I'll need to check my notes when I get home.

Either way, things are gonna snowball from here rather quickly, and I need to make sure I'm prepared. I flexed my left arm, watching my veins and arteries turn black as my magic ran through them, looking like a collection of ley lines across my skin. It's not complete yet. I still need the rest. Seven more pieces to gather in a race against the clock. At least they call to each other, wanting to reunite, so I have some idea where to look. Not that it'll make it easy.

I looked over at Natsu and Lucy having an animated chat, at Happy and Artemis arguing over the last of the fish, at Gray telling Yui about his latest job. Ultear squeezed my hand, looking at me, concerned. We all need to be prepared. This had to be preserved, for everyone's sake. Whatever it takes.

* * *

**A/N: First of all, I would like to thank all the positive response so far. I was not expecting so much so quickly. I also won't lie to you, it's part of the reason I got this out in two weeks as opposed to Partners monthly schedule. The other half of it is that I'm currently on holiday vacation from my job, so I have time for such things.**

**So you know how I mentioned in the last author's note how I may have to up the rating to M, mostly because my love of writing explicit violence? Yeah...about that. It also allows me free reign on language, so not having to censor myself is a nice side benefit. Anyway, that's not a huge deal. I should also cover something I just totally forgot to include in last chapter's notes because I totally spaced on it. For those of you that didn't look it up yourself:**

**Ausländer is German, translating to 'foreigner.'**

**But anyhow, a lot happened this chapter, and it ends pretty much where episode/chapter one of canon ends, though in a highly different fashion. Bora's excuse of gravure models is inspired by anime censoring. They cut out the scene of Bora nearly using a branding iron on Lucy to tone down the scene and then many episodes later had him claim to have been scouting for gravure models. Yes, I thought it was totally ridiculous and decided to, ahem, 'poke fun' at it. So yeah. From here, expect a lot more deviation and heading off from the main cast in terms of activity. The Watsonian Reason being that Tomura is completely over-leveled for anything but late canon challenges, so it would be actively detrimental for him to do stuff with Natsu and Lucy, as they'd never get stronger, and he knows it. The Doylist Reason is I have a special level of annoyance for SI fics where the SI tags along with the main cast and basically does nothing but add witty dialogue. In my opinion, it's the cheapest, most cowardly form of SI. If you're that scared to stray from the stations of canon, why are you writing fanfiction?**

**I'll stop here, my final note being that anyone who can correctly guess what variety of Take Over Magic Tomura uses before I actually show it in action gets an internet cookie from me. I've scattered some hints here and there.**


End file.
